✨ Magical Mindset Podcast: Creativity for Empowerment

The Intersection of Art, Dance, and Martial Arts with José Angel Castro

[00:00:00] Introduction to Today's Episode

Macarena: Are you overwhelmed? Do you need to feel better in today's dynamic world? Is self expression important to you? If so, then you're going to love today's episode with José Angel Castro,

the artist, educator, and facilitator. We'll explore harnessing and focusing creativity to feel better in today's dynamic world.

Intro: Welcome to Magical Mindset with Macarena luz Bianchi, where we explore the magic of mindset, gratitude, and purposeful living. I'm your host, Macarena, and I'm thrilled to have you join me on this journey of wonder, wellness, and wisdom. You can find the episode show notes, your free Magical Mindset Blueprint, and more at xpres.me/podcast. And here's the show.

[00:00:57] Meet José Angel Castro

Macarena: José Angel Castro is a multidisciplinary artist and entrepreneur who aims to contribute positively and proactively to the world around him.

To him, his creativity is applicable to many pursuits, as is evidenced by his eclectic and colorful background. For him, everything is a puzzle. You just have to figure out how the pieces fit. We met in Los Angeles many moons ago, and I'm thrilled that he's part of the South Florida family now.

And we're going to have an illuminating discussion about creativity and self empowerment. José Angel, thank you so much for being here.

Jose: Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. I'm honored to be here.

Macarena: I'm thrilled you're here with us.

[00:01:44] Reminiscing About Los Angeles

Macarena: I always like to reminisce a little bit on how we came to be here today. I remember you fondly from my days in adventures, living in Los Angeles. After grad school, when I went back to work, you lived in Koreatown in a super cool place with my sister lived in the same building. And somehow we met. And then from the moment I saw you, I was like, what a cool dude. And we had a lot of things in common.

Of course we had the creativity, like the love of art, expression, but you're also a martial artist. And at the time, so was I. So I'd love to talk about the empowerment that's available through martial arts. I feel very strongly that every child needs to participate in that.

But I remember, I love Los Angeles. It's so full of creative people. I know a lot of people love to hate it. And it is a big town. It took me being in film school with half of us were foreigners to kind of have an infrastructure to process the place.

It took me about a year till I got it. And then boy, did I love it. what I miss about it is that everybody's working on something creative and that's really a cool, special thing. So when I think of my wonderful, fond, creative, delicious years in Los Angeles, you're part of that community.

Jose: Oh, thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Los Angeles is a special place. I've only been in South Florida for a year and seven months. Now, moved here from Venice beach. So I'm feeling the loss of my lifestyle in Los Angeles. I'm missing the mountains a lot and adapting to my life here and finding a nice path nowadays.

I'm happy being here. But yeah, California is special. It's a special place. And where we met was a very special place, this really interesting place of transitions if we really look at it. It was this building that was newly renovated, in a neighborhood where they were beginning to change the neighborhood over. And the building started to fill with artists and young creatives who were transitioning from one place to another. It was always going to be that kind of artistic, creative transience involved in that place. I loved living there.

So many cool people. I met there.

I think that building was from the 1920s or so. Yeah, it was a really cool old building with lots of cool old fixtures. I think it had been a little bit dilapidated before we moved in. They started to redo apartments one by one as people were leaving. Some of the building was still a little bit in disrepair. Some of the apartments were like slapping lipstick on a pig kind of thing.

But it was the people that I met there that I've now known for two decades. Like yourself.

Macarena: It was something special. And what a cool neighborhood. Whoa. we saw it go through a lot of changes and it's constantly evolving. Now it's such a hot spot.

[00:04:39] The Magic of Boba and Korean Spas

Macarena: And even back then, there was some really cool foodie things and some of my favorite things. I Have a bit of a tea obsession and I also have a Boba obsession.

Jose: Boba. That was Boba before Boba was a craze, right?

Macarena: So it went from Taiwan to probably Asia. Then it moved over to the coast. I'm sure San Francisco and LA. And that's where it took a stronghold. The milk tea is my favorite because it's delicious. And why mess with perfection as far as I'm concerned.

But boy, did that trend take over. And it was one of my comfort foods during the pandemic. I found an awesome local tea place here and I'm a regular and they know me by name, all their locations. And it's my only vice. Okay. I'm allowed. So that's where I discovered that. And I had amazing experiences in that neighborhood.

I'm a big fan of the Korean spas, where sometimes here , we think of going to the spa as a treat, they treat it as maintenance.

Jose: Maintenance.

Macarena: I love the scrubs, the tubs and all of that. It was wonderful. And I love going back and experiencing all that. And then of course the food, the haven for the food.

it was wonderful to be able to walk everywhere.

Jose: Yeah,

Macarena: It is wonderful.

Jose: Back in the days. I have a really cool Boba spot here. Cool local spot here in Miami, 8th and 8th, 8th Street and 8th Avenue. There is a little Korean grocery store that you've probably passed a katrillion times in your life. If you're headed down 8th toward downtown, it'll be on your right hand side just after you pass 8th Avenue.

So it's the second building on the right. Awesome little Korean place. They do great Boba there.

Macarena: Wow. I'm in love. I'm gonna definitely check that out. Luckily for me, I discovered Mius teas. I will write it down. I love them because they use real tea, not the powdered stuff. It's delicious and they make the Boba twice a day. And they're growing. So there was one on the beach.

There's one on, they should be a sponsor, but anyway, they've got one on the beach, one in South Miami for a long time, and recently opened in the Brickle City Center and in Doral.

Jose: city center is close to me. That's cool.

Macarena: Boba is available everywhere. Yes. And it's so good. So of course I'll include those in the captions.

I will find your Korean grocery store, which I'm really excited about.

I'm sure we can find it.

Jose: Yeah, Yeah.

[00:07:08] José's Multifaceted Identity

Macarena: So Mr. Artist, Educator, and Facilitator, I know you're a multi-passionate individual multi-talented individual. That's why I've been looking forward to having this conversation with you.

How would you introduce yourself?

Jose: I think the best description that I've heard, which is not my own. It was given to me by somebody recently. She called me a kaleidoscope. Because I used to describe myself as an onion. Peel back the layers. And she was like, "Onion's okay. But I think you're more of a kaleidoscope because of facets and light and color." I was like, "Okay I'll take that."

Macarena: I'm, feeling the kaleidoscope for you.

Yes.

Jose: It's fantastic. On another level, I think this term describes me in the myriad of things that I do. I am interdisciplinary. I think this is the time for people who are interdisciplinary. I spent a lot of time acquiring skill and it is now that I'm able to apply those skills in the different disciplines that I'm in. For me, fortunately right now in Miami, that's beginning to roll for me. I'm part of a business group and in that business group, I hold the photographer seat. I've recently connected with a curator. As an artist, as a painter, I'll be working with her and her network of artists.

And I'm beginning to work on some programming for kids as a teacher, as an educator. Being able to apply my skills in those different directions is a privilege. Talk about oftentimes, I'm busy applying it. I guess I just have this thing that I never want to feel like I'm boasting. So it's strange to talk about, but I do own it.

It is mine. I do own it, appreciate it and acknowledge it.

Macarena: Interesting that you say that because you're actually expressing it, which is amazing. But you're so much more than just a photographer or an educator or a musician or just anything. Also I felt growing up, everybody was like, I want to be X.

And I was like, I want to do it all. It's interesting that now in our mature age, it's fun to see how all of those skills allow us to express ourselves and manifest incredible things. We've had a lifetime of skill making and talent finessing and expressing. So I think it's healthy to talk about because you're not one dimensional.

And I don't believe anybody is, even if they think they are. No one is. And by sharing your story, it allows people to be okay with and accept that. You don't have to choose. It will fit and find its way. And all of those skills help each other.

[00:09:51] The Power of Creativity

Macarena: And I wanna talk about your painting. Because your painting is not just painting. It's performative in the sense that other people can watch it. It has to do with movement and expression. And I think it is quite unique. It's also meditative. So it's not about creating something that you have to present so much.

You're not doing it for the sake of the finished product, which is beautiful. That's part of it, of course. But your process is all about the journey of it. And that is so important because I think all of life is like that.

Jose: Yeah. I was a dancer and I'm a lifelong martial artist. And I thought to myself, what would it be like for me to express those things with paint? And again, that whole interdisciplinary thing, there was something very specific that I was looking to find for myself as an artist. In attaching paint to movement, I'm able to create a visual expression of movement.

That's not only external movement, but it's also internal movement. what goes on the canvas is influenced by everything around me and inside me. All the skills I've acquired, what music I'm listening to at the time, what my mood is, what my emotional state is, what my spiritual state is at the time goes on the canvas.

So each canvas is completely different one from the other. It's abstract art. It's not figurative art. And when I wanted to express this, I looked into some different art movements. And there was an art movement that came out of Dadaism called the Fluxus movement. And the Fluxus movement was very much process over product.

And there were all kinds of artists involved in that movement. The really cool thing for me is that this is process and product. And that's been a pervasive mindset for me recently. Especially in these times. I like to call them dynamic times as a diplomatic way of putting it. In these dynamic times, being able to express in that way, is incredibly important because it's also in a way--therapeutic. And it's also teachable, which was something that was really important to me too, was being able to not only do it myself. The best test for any practice is whether or not you can teach it and teach it effectively.

When I share that practice with people in a class to see what happens for folks from the moment I start to explain it and we start to warm up to when we're finished, that transformation is profound.

Macarena: That's beautiful. And you mentioned the dynamic times. Yes, we're living in a time of contrasts of a lot of challenge.

[00:12:24] Navigating Dynamic Times

Macarena: This is magical mindset, so we don't ignore the reality. But with mindset and gratitude, we're able to navigate through it in uplifting, empowering way.

And what I say with my coaching clients, it's don't get distracted, don't take the bait. Because it is so easy to get lost. There's a lot of things that are so beyond our control. However, when you go back to your work, your creation, your creativity, that's where the magic is.

Jose: Yeah. What I was saying before about this mindset, that's in direct contrast to the time we're in, which is very either or. That's where the conflict comes. When people are choosing either or, there's no other way. And there's always another way.

I think it's not that you are not allowed to have your opinion in contrast to mine. You exist and I exist. Where do we find the middle ground there? Because in all of this, one of the things I noticed is that everybody's still going about their daily lives in the ways they always have.

Trying to put food on your table, trying to take care of the people that you love, getting up every day and standing on your own two feet, taking some breaths, if you can. All those things are commonalities. And if we choose to look at the ands, "Oh, you have a mom that you love and I have a mom that I love," right?

Rather than you believe in one thing, and I believe in something else. And those two things mean we're completely separate people and there's no way that we can get together or talk to each other or acknowledge each other. So I'm looking at what is and what is else and what is.

I love it. I love it. By the way, of the work I do with my clients and my coaching and my everything else is life is not either or, and the more we're available to be open to options,

Macarena: It's so much easier to navigate.

Jose: The options open up when you think of this and that rather than this or that. And it's not easy. I'm not saying to our listening audience, I'm a super practical human. I don't believe in things that don't work, that are not functional, that can't be applied.

None of this is to say that any of this is easy. It's stuff you have to work for. You have to practice to get to the place where you're not simply reactive. If you're triggered by something, what are the alternatives to this state of being the state of mind?

How can I arrest this feeling even for a moment to allow me to pivot to something else so that I find the and in it, and it's not easy. It's not easy. And there's still times when you're just going to have to walk away. There's still times when you're going to have to acknowledge your state of The way you feel and say, "Okay, this is enough for me. I'm going to take a break from this." But you're still doing something as opposed to only reacting to something.

Macarena: Yes. Yes. Yes.

So what are some ways in these dynamic times where we can feel better?

Jose: Okay. So I have this theory.

And it actually grew out of my personal experience during the pandemic. I made an agreement with myself. Because I had the feeling that things were just going to get nuts during the pandemic. We were going to lockdowns. And it was actually before we went into lockdowns. Because all the news was starting to go and all the people were starting to give their opinions and the internet was starting to explode theories and this thing and that thing and the other thing. So I felt like I needed to find a way to stay balanced in that because I have people relying on me.

My family. I want to make sure that I'm able to be there for people. And I felt like it was going to throw me out of balance. So I made an agreement with myself. And it was three pronged. One,

if you need a break, take a break.

It's a simple thing, but you wouldn't imagine that applied to everything. If you feel like you're in the wrong emotional state, take a break. If you're working on something and you're frustrated, take a break. The second thing was feel what you're feeling when you feel it.

Don't take anything and shove it aside. Don't swallow anything. Don't ignore stuff. Don't lie to yourself about how you feel. Feel it now as much as it is so that you can allow it to pass. And the third thing was when you're feeling shitty and you're gonna feel shitty, go make something. That is the key. Because, we're dealing with super, fluid times right now, right? And what we found in general during the pandemic is people started adopting creativity as a means of balance. Everybody started doing things like, making sourdough starters, learning to play the piano, learning to play the guitar, whatever, even watching Netflix was even consuming creativity as a means to find balance. And what I offer people is making your creativity into a practice that actually feeds the balance in your life. And the agreement that I made with myself is the same one that I offer other people. I didn't care what it was. I didn't care if I went in my closet and I found two boxes and decided to tear them up and try to make a robot.

I didn't care what it was. I didn't care if it ever saw the light of day. I didn't care if I ever repeated making that something. I didn't care if anybody ever saw it. Just the act of having concentrated time where you're in the present. Gift of being in the current moment for a concerted amount of time, you find yourself flipping, you find your emotional state, your spiritual state, just changing.

And that's magical. That's a magical thing. And it doesn't cost anything. It depends if you want to buy art supplies or whatever. But I told myself whatever's here in the house that I could put my hands on, right? It doesn't have to cost anything because you have stuff laying around in your house.

For me, I had fabric around, paper and canvas and whatever there that I could just make something. And it was so incredibly valuable. And I think post pandemic, after the fire of all that stuff, many of us put those things down and never went back to them. When in fact we could use that in our daily lives as a practice.

And when we were talking earlier about finding your lane, forever as creatives, people tell you, find your lane, choose that one thing. And for me, my lane Is creativity itself. As long as I'm creating things that are taking me in the direction I want to go, creativity itself is my thing.

And I think that can become a valuable daily practice for people. Because we're finding ourselves in all kinds of states, now. As a default mechanism, have some things around that you can play with, that you can make. Maybe you'll make some things that you want to repeat.

Maybe you'll make some things that will become something. But the act of practicing, the act of creativity, the act of forcing yourself into joy, into that sort of state of ascendance is so important.

Macarena: Wow. I love what you're saying. Exploring, playing, have curiosity, employ that beginner mind, being able to tinker tinker. All of that is so important. I think it's the allowing of expression. And for some of us, workaholics, it's a challenge to stop the focus of the busy work or whatever we think we need, chasing that carrot or whatever it is, to actually do something without planning or consequence or anything else, just an act. it reminds me of this great book by Rick Rubin, The Creative Act, where he talks about how everything we do, we create is a devotional act, which is beautiful. What a beautiful way of expressing that and being okay that today's a different day than yesterday and tomorrow's going to be different.

So what you create each of these days is going to be unique and that's okay. That's actually what's cool. It's almost like a time capsule of what was going on in that time, but a lot of us judge it. So then we either don't want to share it or. We're afraid to commit instead of just the exercise of playing, like putting a playful twist to it so that it doesn't matter.

Try to make it as bad as you can. That's something we use in writing cause it's so hard sometimes for authors to get out a first draft. So then the assignment is write the worst draft possible just to get it out. And then it's " Oh, they're liberated." Did you read Atomic Habits?

Jose: No.

Macarena: He gives a great example, a great story where there was a photography class. They did an experiment and half the class, the grade was on quantity.

" How many pictures can you take?" The other half was on quality. "The one photo you have to submit", right? Guess who created the better work?

Jose: I wonder

Macarena: Not the one looking for perfection. It was the group that could play and experiment and that had that liberty to test and explore.

Jose: Yeah.

Macarena: Their work was far more superior. So as a photographer, I know, you know what we're talking about here. But I always remember that because as a recovering workaholic and as a recovering control freak and as a recovering perfectionist, I sometimes will have analysis paralysis or preparation paralysis, because there's so much to prepare that it's hard to just do the thing. Whatever we need to do to get out of our own way to just sit and create is so important.

Jose: Yeah. What we're talking about here, for instance, one thing about this sort of practice is liberating because there is zero obligation to ever show anything to anyone. You're making for the sake of making. Period. So you can liberate yourself from that little bit of insecurity and just sit down and make something.

There's some wood in your backyard, go grab a saw and a hammer and make something. We don't know what it is. We don't care what it is. Just make something. And that act, you keep saying the word "do." What are you gonna do? Not what are you gonna think about, not what are you gonna ruminate over, not what are you gonna worry about.

What are you gonna do, right? Go make something. You feel angry and you can't get out of it. Go make something. You feel frustrated and you can't get out of it. Go make something. You feel elated and happy and you have the time. Go make something. You can always go make something. What's funny about it too, is we often, as grownups, we think there's no time.

There's no time. There's no time. But one little thing that I would like to offer people to think about is how much time do we spend forcing ourselves to do something that isn't working or we know won't work.

When we don't take the time to take a break to take a breather we're like banging our heads against the wall trying to get this thing done when we could probably take 10 or 15 minutes to breathe and make something and then go back to the work and it'll work out. See what I'm saying?

Macarena: So much better. It's so true.

Jose: And then you can find the time. I'm not talking about dedicating three days to a super duper art project. I'm talking about dedicating 15 10 minutes, you used a great word to just tinker, just to see where something will go. How beautiful would that be in our lives to just see where it's going to go? With no judgment. No judgment from inside either, because we're the worst about that, right? Just see, let's just see, what's it going to cost you?

Macarena: What else is possible?

Jose: Yeah. What else is possible? Options, right? Options. It really does come down to options.

Macarena: Awesome. So out of curiosity, when did you start martial arts and dancing?

[00:24:28] The Importance of Martial Arts

Macarena: What came first, the chicken or the egg here?

Jose: Martial arts came first in terms of physical disciplines, body disciplines, movement disciplines. When I was a kid, we got mugged in new Orleans, the town where I grew up. my mom was like, okay, you're going to karate. I was five. So next year will be 50 years involved in the martial arts in one way or another, in one discipline or another. It's crazy. But yeah.

I think everybody should find a practice of some sort, to work on in even if it's just for a little while. And you hear a lot of men in martial arts, with these big egos, this style is better than that style.

This style works better than that style, which is all about that sort of male gorilla out in the streets, trying to beat people up ego stuff. I can't say, I don't have it at all, but I've spent my entire life practicing so that it's not the predominant part of my personality. Let's put it that way.

The greatest benefit I think is time spent with and on yourself.

If you spend time in the martial arts, you have to battle yourself for that extra punch or that extra kick or that extra 10 minutes on the mat. Or on that day that you really don't want to go, but you go anyway. That's when the real benefit of karate, of any martial art practice kicks in, is when you really don't want to do it and you do it anyway.

You find that resilience, you find that commitment, you find that resolve to improve yourself. That little bit more every time you practice. That's more valuable than anything else in my estimation. I think it's also good to be able to take care of yourself in the world. It's also good to be able to walk into spaces and have people understand that you take up space and you have confidence in yourself and you probably shouldn't be messed with.

That's also good. But that other piece is so important.

Macarena: Yeah, it's so empowering. And what's really interesting for me and my experience with it, I didn't come to it until my thirties. And I think before that I was really just all brain. All head, detached.

 I was just my brain. So I was completely disconnected from my body and I was pretty good at everything that involved the brain, but I sucked at martial arts, it didn't matter. It didn't occur to me not to go. I just went. And even though I was terrible at it, I was in terrible shape.

I hate exercise. "Exercise is dangerous!" It was really hilarious. What I realized was, "Oh, these guys are not just rolling around, like they have to be really aware of everything. Especially in the grappling, they need to know what their foot is doing versus their arm."

And I was like, "Oh my God, have to be present." I did Jeet Kune Do, which I call the original mixed martial arts, Bruce Lee's.

And we had to learn how to punch. And at first I'm like, "I don't want to hurt anyone." And of course the sensei was like, " Yes, you do."

I'm like, "I do not, I really don't want to hurt anyone." He's " Oh, but you do. There's a part of you that does." I'm like, "No." He's " Oh yeah." So then you tap into that power and being able to access that power. And then what I found fascinating is, by the way someone throws a punch, I can tell you their defense mechanisms.

If you understand it, if you pay attention, you can see this. I remember the first time, someone came at me with full force, and what I used to say is nothing gets you to the present moment, like getting hit in the face. I think that was part of the magic of that Fight Club movie. Experiencing all of that, connecting with my body, connecting with my power, the focus, the discipline. I can never remember the word because as a enthusiast, I'm like, "Discipline, what?" It's like a healthy version of discipline.

You get to really express parts of yourself. You have to train. You get to go beyond your limits. All of that I found absolutely empowering and absolutely fascinating. And I loved it. It was so great. And there is something so magical about knowing, Oh, I know how to throw a punch. Not with my arm, with my hips.

So I know I will never be in that situation, but it's great to know, if it comes down to it, that person's in trouble. They're going to be in trouble. So that's amazing.

Jose: To me, that sort of thing is like all of life. It's all about tools. If you're learning to be a mechanic, they don't give you a toolbox full of tools all at once. With each skill you learn, you put a new tool in the toolbox. And it's not that every day you go to work on cars, you're going to pull out every tool and use every tool in the toolbox.

There's a number of tools that will be the go to tools you use on a regular basis. Some will sit there until you need them. When you need them, you'll pull them out and use them for that purpose. To me, that's what martial arts is. To me, that's what self-defense training is.

That's what personal safety training is. It's a tool that you will pull out when you need to use it. And the real fact is in most people's lives, you may never pull that tool out of the toolbox, but it's good to have. It's a good one to have. Again, not being too referential to what other people do or think or say, but there is a lot of, "Oh, I'm going to go out there and, get in fights all the time." Right?

"That's why I practice martial arts. Cause I get in fights all the time." You should be thinking about why you get in fights all the time. Not just that you have the tools to beat people up. But why are you getting in fights all the time? Everything is energy. We are beings, we are energetic beings.

What are you shining out in the world that's attracting people to want to punch you in the face? That should be a problem. I'm just saying that should be an issue that you're attracting people who want to beat on you all the time. The other way is to practice with, for, and often against yourself on a regular basis, which just makes you a stronger, more confident human being moving through the world who aren't looking for trouble, generally don't find trouble. Simple equation.

Macarena: Most martial artists I've met are not out to pick fights. But if someone starts it, oh boy, can they finish it. Which is sometimes depending on where you live is a fact of life, right? Depending on your neighborhood or geographical location.

My husband talks about that a lot, he's a big guy and felt like he had to be big to protect himself and his family, his sisters, his mom, et cetera. He doesn't live there anymore and he's not in danger anymore. It's interesting. So yeah, I think it's such a rich thing.

Especially children, especially boys, it's a rite of passage. It teaches them so much focus, meditation. I think it's wonderful.

[00:31:20] The Power of Self-Defense and Personal Safety

Jose: Let's talk about girls for a minute and these practices. In what you said earlier about feeling detached from your physical self, one of the things that I specialize in as an instructor is self-defense and personal safety for girls and women. I think it is incredibly important because societally we neglect that part of our girls and women. We neglect that physical awareness, that physical empowerment. Because we train our girls and women to rely on men to feel safe in the world, right? However, when given the tools, when given the right focus of how to use those tools, women can be incredibly effective in protecting themselves. And there is something to be said about that feeling of empowerment.

Because that feeling of empowerment means that you're going to walk through the streets. More confidently than you would have before. And as we all know, crimes need three things, a perpetrator, a victim and opportunity. The more we train, the fewer opportunities we offer to perpetrators. Simple equation, right?

[00:32:33] Empowerment Through Martial Arts for Girls and Women

Jose: The power of that is incredible. The girls and women that I've had the opportunity to train, have come out on the other side feeling so much more present in their bodies and therefore in the world and feel like they don't have to rely on somebody else to feel protected.

Macarena: Yeah, I think it's almost, I would say mandatory. For boys, it offers that rites of passage that we're missing. For girls, it's incredible, everything you've said, how it makes us feel. I'm a big proponent of it. The younger, the better. Especially grappling or jiu jitsu or mixed ones. If you notice, if you're ever in an altercation, chances are you end up on the ground.

Knowing how to manage that and feel safe if someone's on top of you is amazing. I think it's priceless.

Jose: You won't feel safe. You won't feel like you're not afraid. What you will feel is the security of having the tools to be able to do something about it and the ability to do something about it under duress, right? What I teach oftentimes is quite comprehensive. It's not necessarily any specific discipline of martial art so much as it is, taking skills and tools and techniques from the different things that I've learned over the years and turning it into something that's really down and dirty.

Having to overcome, overmatch the aggression of somebody who's trying to hurt you. I also have a really specific emphasis on personal safety, which happens long before somebody is actually coming at you. The way you're moving through the world, how observant you are in the world, how observant you are of your environment.

Cause usually when it comes to these practices, they talk about one type of awareness, situational awareness. And situational awareness only usually covers when something's actually going down. When somebody is coming at you, when somebody's hands are on you, that's the situation.

Now you're in the situation. Or something is in very close proximity to you and it's going down. I would like to add to that environmental awareness. It's much wider, broader in its scope to not only where you are, but three blocks down the road. That helps you almost with a spidey sense, be able to connect the dots as to what could potentially go down and evade those situations. Environmental awareness first, situational awareness once we know that something could potentially go down. A lot of times, those are things that we ignore. We notice that group of guys standing around on a street corner, a block away, we noticed them, but we chose not to do anything about them until we're actually walking through them. Then we're potentially in a situation, but we could have done something to prevent that if we had chosen to do something else

when we noticed them in the first place. And especially for women and girls, your instincts are so heightened in the world. It's unfortunate because of the way society is, but that's the case. Your instincts are so heightened, it almost becomes predictive. It almost becomes like magic.

"Oh my goodness. How did she know? How did she see that?" and if we can utilize that as a tool for staying safe and listen to that every single time, then it's a huge value to us.

Macarena: Wow. Fascinating. You've touched on so many important things. I think there's the street smarts that sometimes we overlook, especially in the suburban bubbles that most of our kids grew up with now. Like our young people are growing up when. That's why it's so important to have experience and try things. And what I love what you said is, it reminds me of Bruce Lee and his philosophy. Fascinating what he did and he created with Jeet Kune Do and melding what worked based on each person's body. What he taught that basketball player, Kareem Abdul Jabbar was very different than what he would teach a woman that was half his size and weighs a quarter.

So that's really cool that you've incorporated that into your system because it isn't one size fits all. It's so interesting how you have to adapt and be very smart. And the best thing you could do is avoid the drama altogether.

Jose: The best fight in the world is the one that never happens. That way you keep your blood in your body, I keep my blood in my body, and everything's cool. The one that never happens that's the best one in the world. So we should always be thinking toward that as the end goal.

If we actually find ourselves in one of those situations, we need to be thinking, okay, what's the best way for me to get home safely? What's the best, fastest, most efficient way for me to get home safely? I cannot emphasize more how much I think it's important for girls and women to study these things on a regular basis till we know for sure that we can utilize them when we need them.

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[00:38:04] The Intersection of Dance and Martial Arts

Macarena: Now for something completely different, yet related. So when I was in university, undergrad. And I worked full time. I had a double life. I worked the door at the hot clubs in South Beach. Then I would go to school from 7 AM to 7 PM all day and it just didn't occur to me not to go and I miscalculated. I was such a workaholic that I finished two bachelors really quickly. So the last year I had one or two classes to take and the rest was all electives. So at the last moment I got to take jewelry and metals. Which turned out to be super cool.

The first semester I took a stretch class. The second semester, that woman went to teach like a woman's prison. The only class I could take was an advanced, Afro Brazilian dance class.

Jose: Oh, that's fantastic.

Macarena: Yeah. It was hilarious. So it was my last class. The rainy season in Miami, I had to go through a swamp to get there. it never occurred to me not to go. I signed up, I'm going.

I would show up. All dance majors. And I was a science major, environmental science for undergrad and international relations. It was so funny. And then we had a bongo accompanist, which was fabulous. The teacher, he was really cool. He was Brazilian Dutch. Gorgeous, tall man. His wife was a Flamenco dancer.

The both of them were , amazing, beautiful couple.

But the class was torture. I liked the music. I love bossa nova. So they play the music and then they tell us what to do and we go across. And every day was the same thing. Stop thinking. And I'd be like, "but thinking is my thing."

Thinking is all I got. My noodle, that's my superpower. None of this other nonsense. So torture. And towards the end of the class, like three quarters in, one day I was so tired because I would work all night, be done at five am. Go to school, be there all day. One day, I catch myself moving to the music, not thinking about it, I caught myself. "Oh, okay." So then I did whatever little choreography we were supposed to do They clapped, they were in tears. It was like magic. " You got it. Oh my God." I was like, " Oh, how cool." And then for the final grade, we had to write an essay. That's my forte. It's not that I knew I should be a writer. It's that every time I could express myself really well with assignments like this one. So it was about your relationship to Afro Brazilian culture.

I wrote the truth. I wrote about my love hate relationship with this class, how it was torture and I didn't like it, but I loved the music. At the time I was an atheist but I wrote about how we pretend to be so civilized, but we're all connected with the drum beat.

And it was such a beautiful experience. So at the end of the class, he comes to me teary eyed and he says, thank you so much. And I'm " What are you talking about? What's going on? What's happening here?" And he says, " You're the only one who gets it." And I was like, "whoa, cool!" It was such a cool experience because It was a spiritual experience. Even though at the time I thought, I understood energy in the sense of science, but not in that spiritual realm. It was really a beautiful, experience. But it was funny because it was such torture. But I had a breakthrough because I stuck at it, no matter how much it sucked, how much I hated it. That's been a good example for my life, even when things are not what you wish. If you're motivated enough to continue, you can find the magic. Hopefully it doesn't take that long, but it did. It was a remarkable experience for me. And at the time I was like, " Oh, how fascinating. This is what everybody's talking about." Then it was " like, Oh, cool next." it wasn't until years later that things changed for me.

But that was an example of being all brain, not being in touch with that.

Jose: When you had inadvertently let go of that, you found yourself actually dancing.

Macarena: The dance was coming from the inside rather than the outside.

[00:42:25] The Journey of Mastery and Expertise

Jose: I have an interesting story. The same thing, but coming from the opposite direction. When I moved to Amsterdam, it was 1996.

I had to leave the martial arts schools that I was in, in New York. I was in Karate and Japanese Jujutsu at the time. I fell into Tai Chi. Chen family Tai Chi. A friend of mine knew this instructor and I showed up at the park one day and started practicing with them.

At the time, I'm a professional dancer. I moved for a living, right? I've had all this martial arts experience previous. I make a living out of, you go to an audition, somebody shows you something in three minutes and you do that thing like you've been doing it your whole life.

That's the goal, right? That's where I was at the time. So imagine what it was for me to run into a movement system that I could not remember in my body to save my life. I was doing this system, and I could not remember the steps in the form to save my life. It was making me crazy.

It was torture for me to be taught movement and not be able to do it right away by memory. So I go to my teacher and I'm like, " What's the deal? What's going on? I don't understand what's happening. I can do everything else. All these other movement forms I can do, in my sleep. You can teach it to me and in five minutes, I'll be doing it like I've done it my whole life. And he's "I understand. One thing is you're young. The other thing is this system is internal and everything that you've been doing before is external. It's motored by muscle. This is motivated by energy.

It's motivated from inside." And I'm like, "So what? I should still know how to do it." He's " give it some time."

Macarena: It's choreography. I should know how to do this.

Jose: Exactly, it's choreography. So if you're just patient, you'll find it. And I'm like, "if I'm just patient, I'll find it, whatever, man, I should know how to do this, right now."

I was able to just go there and practice it from that point forward. And one day, like you, I found myself doing it, remembering it and able to do it because I was no longer resisting it because I thought I should be able to do it faster. So just the practice of it, the torture of it, going there day in and day out, and trying to suspend what I thought I knew, eventually made it come from inside. And it completely transformed the way I practiced, Karate and Jiujitsu completely transformed it. Adding that practice was huge for me. It was also a huge life lesson about resistance to new information, being able to go someplace and speaking of Bruce Lee, being able to empty the cup, so that I'm working in something for the sake of that discipline. When I moved to Los Angeles after Amsterdam, I started doing another form of Karate that I had never done before. And I took off my black belt, put on a white belt and tried my best to do the system the way that these people were teaching me to do it.

As opposed to trying to add stuff from my previous experience and all that stuff. Just do it the way that I'm being taught. And it was cool because after I learned it that way, naturally, when I got closer to becoming a Black Belt in that system, it just started to happen that things that I knew from before started to just integrate themselves.

So that my kempo looked and felt different from other people's kempo. Interesting stuff.

Macarena: Wow. I love what you're saying. It's like, how do we embody things? And I think at first, we have to be fearless in our incompetence and fearless and yeah, it's gonna suck, it's not gonna be pretty. And that's okay. It's part of the process and the patience. And I think that's another great thing I like about the martial arts is it teaches you patience.

You work hard. At first, they show you the things you have to learn to pass your belt or whatever, and you're like "hell no, it's not, I'm not, I don't know how to do that." And then you figure it out, and it's not easy. And all of that is really amazing. I love that story. I love how it mirrors.

Jose: Yeah.

Macarena: How interesting.

Jose: It does. It also speaks to what you're talking about now, how we find that place of internalizing at acquired skill to where we're then. Because it's this thing about expertise. And I like to think of expertise as expert ease, Expert, EASE. The ease of being an expert, the ease of doing things. And that ease only comes from practice, from learn, rinse, repeat, learn, rinse, repeat, going through the torture of it, going through the sort of incremental learning of whatever it is, going through the discipline of sticking to it, of failing, of falling on your face of the discomfort of the acquisition of skill oftentimes.

When we come to that place continuing to use the martial arts as a metaphor, you're a white belt, and you don't know much, you're dangerous, because you don't know much. When you become a greenbelt, when you become an intermediate level, you start everything, greenbelt, brownbelt, the whole thing.

When you come to being black belt and you have all of the physical tools of that system, you've learned the physical tools of that system, you come to realize black belt is the beginning, not the end. And then when you come into being a black belt for a while and you continue practicing, that's when you reach some sense of expert ease.

That's when you begin to formulate in that language. And that holds true for any discipline. It doesn't matter if it's photography, it doesn't matter if it's writing, doesn't matter if it's playing soccer. It's not until you get to that place where you begin to formulate in that language that you really become an expert, or in some cases, people use the word master, right?

Master level is that level where now I'm beginning to create in that language. So new systems are born. New ways of thinking are born. New ways of expressing that language are born. I don't care if it's mathematics, if it's biology, I don't care what it is. When you get to that point, to that level of mastery is where new things happen.

Innovation begins to happen because now you're writing new language as you go.

Macarena: Oh my God. It's so true. And especially with the martial arts. Sometimes you have to get to the black belt so they teach you the really cool stuff. You have to be doing the physical stuff so you actually learn way more of the energetic stuff, which I think is quite interesting. And I love that you are also a dancer and a martial artist, which also reminds me of Bruce Lee, who was the Cha Cha King, right? So that's another thing I love about martial arts. I found that the better your martial arts gets, the better your life gets. And the better your life gets, the better your martial arts gets. So it took me years to learn how to throw a punch. And then I took some time off and I did a lot of inner work, a lot of inner work.

I did all these trainings, like warrior camp, all this stuff to really face my fears. And it was incredible to see when I came back to the martial arts, boy, I thought, "Oh my God, I'm going to have to start over." Oh no. It was like at a whole other level. It was beautiful. So I love how it's not an isolated system.

I think dance and martial arts, it really helps everything we do. It makes us more complete.

Jose: The dance and martial arts thing, first it's unique to be a dancer and a martial artist at the same time. When I went to NYU in dance and all of my teachers thought I was absolutely nuts because I would leave school and go to the dojo.

And I was in a jujitsu school at the time. And we threw full on. We practiced full on. It wasn't full contact, but we didn't do it gently. We actually did it. And we learned to fall correctly so that we could throw a full out and all this stuff. And my dance teachers were like, "what are you doing? You're going to hurt yourself. You're going to break something." Whatever. I got way more injured as a dancer than I ever did as a martial artist in terms of like long term injury. Yeah. It's crazy.

Macarena: Long term injury. Cause I was gonna say you probably had lots of bruising.

Jose: Oh yeah. Lots of bruising, thumbs in the eye, that sort of stuff. Temporary stuff, split lips, temporary stuff. But in terms of long term, I've got way more injuries that I can definitely point to dance as the culprit for those injuries. But yeah, I think dance is the same mechanism, right?

You have to get there and be with yourself for hours and days and months and years searching for that one extra turn or looking for that one extra quarter inch of stretch. People who do yoga experience the same things, right? When you get on that mat, it's not about the other people in the room.

Sometimes it is, sometimes you're comparing or there's like a healthy bit of competition or whatever. But most of the time it's you battling you to take away that extra little support in yoga, to move past that extra breath. And again, practice is not necessarily exclusive to any one discipline. The basketball player who is 12 years old and is out in the rain practicing on their own, the same jump shot a hundred times by themselves. That's practice. That's practice. That person against themselves every single time, so that when they go on the court, the other people on the court don't matter as much because they've done that incremental practice.

Step, step, bend the knee, shoot. Step, bend the knee, shoot. Step, bend the knee, shoot. It's the same C step, punch. C step, punch. C step, punch. Kick kick. Kick in numbers, kick by numbers. One. One, I bend the knee. Two, I straighten my leg. Three, I bend the knee. Four, I put my foot on the ground.

Thousands of times. You do that until you're no longer counting each step and it's going fluidly and it's strong and it does its own and it's formulating on its own, right? That's practice.

Macarena: And I think the presence of it is what makes it sacred. And it's great to be inspired by others, but ultimately there's no competition but that with ourselves and what we're trying to achieve or express. And I think it's beautiful to have the language of martial arts. You speak that language, you speak the language of dance, you speak the language of music.

I think all those things are beautiful. I love your agreements with yourself. When it comes time to make something, you can also express something. It could be a dance. It could be a martial arts sequence. It could be a combination of that. That's what you've done with your painting, which I think is quite fascinating.

When it's time to go do something, time to go make something?

[00:53:13] Creative Expression and Making Things

Macarena: I know you have a lot, so I don't know, top three or top five or top 10, whatever you're comfortable with.

Jose: When I go make something? Wow. Yeah, I'm very fortunate in that that I've acquired a lot of creative skills that allow me to make things. For me, I think it's the idea of making things for the making sake. That is the challenge, right? Because for me as an artist, I'm used to making things for the sake of expressing in an outward way. And the artist mentality is to make something beautiful. And beautiful has a lot of different meanings. But make something that expresses something to other people to an audience. So it's quite a thing for me to go make something for no reason, for no specific reason.

 My top go to's are probably photography, music, and painting. Those are probably my top three go to's.

But, there's a lot of things. There's a lot of things.

Macarena: That's wonderful. That's wonderful. Have you been to the Bass Museum? The Bass Museum of Art here?

Jose: I have not yet.

Macarena: Oh my God. So I'm a big fan of Creative Mornings. Do you know that? Creative mornings. Oh my God. I have to share that with you. So creative mornings is a worldwide community. Each month there's a theme and each city has a talk about that theme.

And it's in person, during the pandemic, of course it was virtual. A lot of these are recorded, so they're available. And it's a free creative community that I love. I got to go and I brought my husband for the first time. He went with me and he was blown away and inspired and it was wonderful.

And it was at the Bass Museum here in Miami beach. It's their 60th anniversary. They're giving free memberships to Florida (correction: Miami Beach) residents, which I think is really cool for the anniversary year. And there was a great artist. Do you know Hernan Bas? Or Hernan Bas. I loved he had a collection called the Conceptualists and it was so cool because at first you're like, "Oh, it's just a painting." But each painting told such a fascinating story.

I have to share this link with you. It was so cool. Yeah. So there's a lot of local resources here. And a lot of creativity resources. Did you ever do The Artist Way, the book?

Jose: Yes, absolutely. I have it on my bookshelf right over there.

Macarena: Yeah, of course.

It's so good.

I've done it many times and I love it. I think it's a great way for people to reawaken their creativity or access it if they think they don't have any. I think it's a wonderful tool. It is great through transitions or just as a creative project, as a playful creative project, it's like therapy in a book.

Jose: A lot of really cool stuff.

Macarena: Yeah, we did cover a lot of cool stuff. And out of curiosity, you made an agreement with yourself. Do you have a title for that? What do you call it?

Jose: I don't really call it anything. I haven't thought to call it anything. It's just my agreement with myself. I could possibly come up with something to call it, but I hadn't really thought of anything. Cause it was such an internal exercise.

Macarena: Excellent tool. I think it's a really great tool. So we can call it José Angel Castro's self-management agreements or self-regulation agreements or something like that. We're workshopping it if anybody has any suggestions, but I think they're fantastic.

They're fantastic. And you know what reminds me? So just to recap, one is take a break when you need it. Stop and feel what you're feeling. And go make something that's like the condensed version of it. And what I love about this is, there's a saying what is mastery? And mastery is you eat when you're hungry and you rest when you're tired.

Jose: Yeah.

Macarena: If you can be that present to actually be, you're doing it. You're living it. That's what we're all striving for, right? Getting out of the autopilot of either action or thoughts or et cetera.

Jose: For me mastery is reaching the point where you're only utilizing the amount of energy necessary. And only that amount of necessary energy to accomplish any given task. So no more, no less, just what you need to get that thing done.

Macarena: The sweet spot. I love it. What a cool idea. I love it.

So I've loved this conversation.

We talk about the culmination of a life's work. Here we are. I think it's a testament of everything that's come before it, that this is happening so easy and effortlessly. And of course it takes some work, but it's been so much fun.

It's been so cool. I absolutely love it. And we are putting out the energy to find our audience, which is exciting and fun and building community and all that good stuff. And it's been so much fun, actually, just to have these super cool conversations with wonderful people. So I love the platform it has provided for me.

I didn't think of it like that. I think " Oh, let's just share ideas." But it just fits perfectly into my life is a theme park of experience that I use with my clients. That metaphor. Wow. Doing the podcast is such an opportunity for expansion, for creativity, for community, for all the wonderful things.

Expression, exploring new ideas, reconnecting with wonderful people like you that we're too busy to get together. So all that. All that good stuff.

Thank you so much.

Do you have a website or is Instagram the best way for people to find you?

Jose: Instagram is a good way. José Angel photo. Is the one that I use for my art. And the one that I use for everything else is the 1 T H E the 1 Mr c the 1 M R C

[00:59:07] Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Macarena: Thank you, José Angel Castro, for being here today.

All these magical mindsets you've shared have been really wonderful. So I so appreciate you and it's been fun.

Jose: Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely.

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Outro: Wow. What a journey we've been on together. I hope this episode has left you feeling inspired, empowered, and ready to embrace the magic in your life. I'd love to hear about your experiences and insights. Please tag me on social media using the hashtag magical mindset podcast, or leave me a DM to share your wins, challenges, and aha moments.

Let's keep the conversation and the magic flowing beyond this episode. Thank you so much for tuning in and for being a. Until next time, keep shining your light and embracing the wonder of each day. You've got this!

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